


Hybrid Vigor

by Skylerius



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Matt Holt, Altean Pidge | Katie Holt, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Characters will age over time, Coran has a fam, Druid Experimentation, F/M, Gen, Many chapters, Pidge and Matt are only half Altean, Rating May Change, S4 E2 Divergence, Slow Burn, There's gonna be feels bro, s4 spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 14:51:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12914196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylerius/pseuds/Skylerius
Summary: Months ago, Keith left team Voltron to join the Blade of Marmora, seeking to better understand the Galra side of himself. It was a painful decision, but he resigned himself to walk his new path without complaint, believing it was for the best.That is, until the Green Paladin disappears while hunting for her brother, her Lion is found abandoned on a desolate moon, and the Blade refuses to help find her with the excuse that paladins can be replaced so long as the Lion is intact. With the rest of Voltron having to worry about the war effort and the Blade standing idly by, Keith does the Keith thing to do. He packs a few weeks' worth of supplies, takes a shuttle, and goes out to find her on his own. He had found Shiro, and he would find Pidge, too, whether the Blade disowned him or not.He always did have a discipline issue.





	1. Prologue

\---

**Hybrid Vigor:** _noun:_ the tendency of a crossbred individual to show qualities superior to those of both parents, e.g. size, growth rate, and fertility. Also known as _heterosis._

\---

  
The shuttle's walls vibrated slightly as the small ship ventured forward on auto pilot, heading towards a place Keith could only describe as "no man's land." There was no record of any prominent Galra occupation in the area, nor Coalition activity, not even any sentient peoples' home world. It was just... empty. Quiet.   
  
He normally liked the quiet, but not when it was this heavy. There was no birdsong, no rustling of leaves, no babbling of running water or rush of wind. Just the hum of the engine vibrating throughout the ship, and the sound of the blankets rustling as he restlessly shifted around in his bunk, unable to sleep. By his calculations, he had been alone for a little over a week. Maybe ten days, give or take? It was hard to tell, without an actual sunrise or sunset, or a proper sleep schedule like what he used to have on the Castle.   
  
He grimaced, rolling over again and laying on his side so he could stare at the barren grey wall, eyes tracing the cracks between the panels. First, he had left Voltron to join the Blade of Marmora. Then, he even left the Blade. He could only hope he would have a place _somewhere_ after his mission... he doubted the Blade would take him back, considering this was the ultimate act of insubordination, and he had already been giving them grief about their policy to put the mission above the individual. But that just wasn't something he could agree to. Not when one of his own went missing.  
  
It was Shiro's disappearance all over again, except this time he didn't have his team or any of the Lions to back him up.  
  
\---  
  
It all started about two weeks ago, when his training with the Blade was interrupted by an emergency transmission being sent over the shared frequency for Voltron, the Coalition, and the Blade. He could remember walking into the communications room of the base he was stationed at, a dozen other cloaked Marmora agents standing around him as they looked up at a screen. Someone accepted the call, and Allura's face appeared, her pointed ears angled down and eyes filled with fear. The sight of her sent Keith's heart down into his stomach.  
  
"Greetings, allies of Voltron," Allura said, trying to keep her tone formal, though her expression was anything but controlled. "I come to you with urgent news. One of the paladins has gone missing, and we need your help in safely locating her."  
  
A surprised murmur passed through the crowd, and Keith stiffened. _Her._ There was only one female paladin aside from Allura herself, and that was Pidge, the youngest of the crew. The kid was smart, and surprisingly tough; he knew from experience that she could more than hold her own.  
  
"What happened? How did you _lose_ Pidge?" Keith spoke up above the others, stepping forward and fixing Allura with a fierce gaze.   
  
"She went to follow a lead about her brother's whereabouts," Allura explained, her expression only falling further at the sight of Keith.   
  
_They miss me..._ His shoulders loosened a bit at the sorrow in her eyes, only for him to stiffen again as she added with guilt in her voice, "We let her go alone. That was a mistake."  
  
"You _think?!_ You can't just let one paladin go off alone! Voltron is a _team,_ and can only function at full strength if everybody is there!" He growled, knowing that probably sounded cheap coming from him, considering how often he had left Voltron to work on his Marmora training before Shiro took over the black Lion again. "What have the rest of you been doing while Pidge is off on the other side of the galaxy, possibly in Galra hands?! How long has she even been gone?!"  
  
"Keith, please..." Allura pleaded, then sighed, bowing her head. "We made a mistake in letting her go alone, and now we must remedy it. We asked her to contact us at least once every two days, but it has been over three days since last contact. Her Lion is too far away for me to detect where exactly it is, but we do know the first planet she visited in her search. I will send you the coordinates, and we can search all nearby star systems."  
  
Kolivan nodded, finally speaking up, and Keith held his tongue. "Of course. Voltron cannot be formed with only four Lions, and this is detrimental to our cause. We will assist in locating the green paladin."  
  
Relaxing a bit, Keith glanced at his leader, then back at Allura, who smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Kolivan. We appreciate the Blade of Marmora's assistance. I will send you the coordinates of her last known location now."  
  
With that, her image vanished from the screen, but one of the communications officers looked up at Kolivan and nodded, letting him know they had received the coordinates. And that was when the search began, with a few Blade ships, as well as almost the entire resistance, either actively searching, or at least keeping an eye out for the Green Lion and its paladin.  
  
A small rebel force came forward about two days into the search, informing them that Pidge had assisted them on Kraydah's moon when they were attacked by the Galra during a medical supply run to planet Kythra. Te-Osh, their leader, had unfortunately passed away during the attack, but she had given Pidge her transponder, which had the contact code for her brother, Matt. One of the force, Lieutenant Ozar, handed a transponder over to team Voltron and gave them the contact code that had once been Te-Osh's, but was now Pidge's, since she was in possession of that transponder. He informed them it would allow them to track her down, so long as she still had it on her person.  
  
And so, the search gained direction, and Keith felt hope. The transponder led team Voltron straight towards their missing Lion, and they found it sitting on the surface of a desolate moon, its shields up but no signs of damage on its body. At first, everyone felt relief as Shiro's voice came over the comms, announcing that the Green Lion was safe and sound, but there was still no response from Pidge.  
  
Keith anxiously fidgeted in his seat in the communications room, listening as Shiro got out of his Lion and followed the transponder's signal. He could hear the sound of his breathing inside his helmet, the occasional crackle of static as he walked... his voice, describing what he was seeing.  
  
"It's some kind of monument... here, let me see if I can run this through a translator."  
  
There was a moment of silence, and then a soft beeping from his helmet before a robotic voice began to read, "In honor of the 127,098 brave warriors who stood against tyranny. The quest for freedom is one through sacrifice."  
  
Keith's heart skipped a beat as a cold feeling rushed down his spine. "Oh no..."  
  
"Matt..." Shiro whispered over the comms, and then there came the sound of frenzied footsteps as he jogged past the monument, rushing towards the transponder's signal. The beeping of the transponder in his hand was audible through the comm link by that point, a rapid series of high-pitched pinging noises. He was close. "Pidge! Pidge, are you there?!"  
  
The footsteps stopped, and silence fell for a long moment. Then, they all heard the sound of his helmet's translator again. "Matthew Holt. Zero, zero, one..."  
  
"She's not here!" Shiro shouted above the robotic translator in his helmet, pain in his voice. "Pidge isn't here!"  
  
"B-but the signal!" Lance stammered out, the first of the others to speak since they realized that this moon was a rebel graveyard.  
  
"The transponder is here... it's laying here beside Matt's... beside Matt's grave. Like she dropped it, or threw it... Everyone, circle the moon and see if you can find her. She has to be around here somewhere. She couldn't have gone anywhere without her Lion..."  
  
Keith felt himself sink down into his chair, staring down at the floor as he listened to the others call out to Pidge, but to no avail. It was like she just... disappeared, after finding out that the brother she had searched for was dead. Like she couldn't bear the grief, and so she just ceased existing. Of course, he knew that was impossible, so when the others began frantically informing everyone that there was no sign of Pidge, or any living biorhythms at all, he began to question what had happened.  
  
"What if... what if she was followed?" He finally spoke, softly at first, but then he repeated louder, so the others could hear him, "What if she was followed?"  
  
"But her Lion is right here! If it was the Galra, they would have taken it," Allura questioned through the comms. He could imagine her face scrunched up in confusion, the Blue Lion hovering protectively over its green counterpart.   
  
"Maybe it wasn't the Galra. Bounty hunters prowl around grimy backwater planets like where Pidge was headed at the start of all this. Maybe whoever it was didn't have a large enough ship to transport the Lion," Keith suggested, fingers thrumming the arm rest of his chair. "We need to look into this."  
  
"No."  
  
He jolted as he heard a deep voice respond, and looked up to see Kolivan looking down at him. "What?"  
  
"No. The Lion has been found, and that was our priority. The Blade of Marmora will end our search here."  
  
"What are you talking about?! Pidge is still missing!" Lance screeched through the comms, the speaker wailing at the pitch of his voice.  
  
"Paladins can be replaced; this has been proven multiple times, has it not?" Kolivan replied, his face cold. Emotionless. "A new green paladin can be found, now that the Lion has been recovered. We must go back to focusing on our mission."  
  
He wasn't willing to back down from his decision, no matter how much the paladins begged, pleaded, and cried. Keith didn't think he could ever forget the sound of Hunk and Allura trying to stifle heartbroken sobs as they were forced, again, to accept that one of their own was gone. He imagined Shiro's hands gripping the controls of his Lion as he tried to wrap his head around the idea that his old friend, and that old friend's younger sister, who he had been caring for all this time... were lost. Both of them. And Lance... Lance kept trying to fight, to argue, no matter how pointless it was. He never was one to roll over and just accept failure.  
  
Keith himself was quiet. He knew what he had to do.   
  
And he always _did_ have a discipline issue.  
  
That evening, he packed up a few weeks' worth of supplies and all of his personal belongings, took one of the smaller Marmora ships, and went out on his own to find Pidge. He knew she had to be somewhere out there, and that time was short. If she was in the hands of a bounty hunter, the Galra would have her before long... if they didn't have her already.  
  
\---  
  
Keith rolled over again, trying not to think about everything that had happened up until that point, or how unlikely it was that he would find his friend safe and sound after she was gone for so long. He needed to get some sleep, so he could be awake and alert for another day of searching tomorrow. He couldn't give up, no matter how bad things looked. He had found Shiro... he could find Pidge, too.  
  
Closing his eyes, he sighed, one hand pulling his blanket a little higher up over his torso, hugging it against his chest. He felt a pang of loneliness go through him, and then he drifted off into restless sleep.  
  
His dreams were plagued by vague images of a forested planet, the trees looking warped, so unlike those of earth, their trunks curving into a sort of S-shape, leaves dark and sharp. Their bark peeled like paint off an old house, shreds of the reddish-brown wood littering the ground, crunching with every step he took through the forest. A warm breeze blew over him, ruffling his hair, but a harsh, chemical smell came with it, making a chill go down his spine. He had a very bad feeling about this forest... but he still kept walking, his vision warped at the sides like he was looking through a fish-eye lens. _What's going on...?_  
  
A few meters into the woods, he found where the harsh smell was coming from. A small building loomed ahead, the windowless walls constructed from thick metal panels, robotic drones standing outside with blasters in their hands. Minions of the Galra Empire.  
  
Keith gritted his teeth, trying to understand why the Galra would have such a small base out in the middle of nowhere. It just didn't make any sense.  
  
The harsh smell was getting stronger and stronger with every moment that passed, making his eyes water as he raised a hand to his nose. His sinuses were burning, like he was breathing in fire... and his head was starting to ache. And then throb. And then a skull-splitting pain rocketed through his head, making him cry out and drop to his knees, raising his hands to his head.  
  
Opening his eyes again, Keith realized he wasn't dreaming anymore. He was awake, laying in his bunk on the shuttle, tears in his eyes as the horrible pain continued to shoot through his head. It was like someone was jabbing at his skull with a dull knife, trying to break through but being unable to.  
  
"What... the hell...?" He hissed between his teeth, clutching at his head and curling into the fetal position as he squeezed his eyes shut, in too much pain to even stand.   
  
Images then flooded into his mind, vibrant but fleeting. The forest again, the base, and then the _inside_ of the base. Narrow halls illuminated by a dull red glow, doors sliding open, a room full of machines... Bundles of wire as thick as his arm winding all across the floor in a tangled mess, like spaghetti noodles. Lights flashing, meters rising up and down, a constant glow in red, green, white, blue... The cloaked figures of Galran druids, a hand reaching towards his face, and then just a blur of sound and color before he saw a large glass tube, first from the outside, and then he was inside of it, getting that warped, fish-eye lens vision again as he gazed out through the thick, transparent walls.  
  
His lungs and sinuses were burning, a dark, purplish-black smoke trickling into the tube and causing every breath to be agony. Gasping and coughing, he clutched at his throat, his entire body now wracked with pain, his head still feeling like it was going to explode at any moment.  
  
And then he saw a reflection on the inside of the glass tube, what should have been his own, but was instead that of a young girl. Long, pointed ears poked out from her short, fluffy tawny hair, her pale skin bruised around her big golden eyes. Tears were streaming down her face as she clawed at her throat, gasping desperately for breath, but every inhale just brought on more pain as the dark smoke continued to sear through her lungs. It burned, and burned, and burned...   
  
_Pidge...?!_ Keith blinked open his tear-filled eyes again as he recognized the girl in the reflection, his hands clawing at the sheets under him. He struggled to get out of the bed, clumsily falling onto the floor as he still failed to find his feet, feeling shaky and sick from the pain that still clutched at his head. He forced himself onto his hands and knees, unable to walk, but he could damn well crawl, slowly making his way through the shuttle to reach the cockpit.  
  
He didn't know why the Pidge he was seeing had pointed ears like Allura and Coran, or what was happening to her, or why he even believed the sudden visions he was getting, but he trusted his instincts. They had led him to Shiro and the Blue Lion back on Earth. They would lead him to Pidge now.   
  
Dragging himself to the cockpit, he grabbed onto the pilot's chair and pulled himself into it, gritting his teeth from the effort. Beads of sweat rolled down his face by the time he was finally seated, hunched forward over the control panel with one hand pressed to his head. He was panting for breath as he quietly pleaded, "Come on... where are you, Pidge...? Where are you...?"  
  
He shakily reached out with one hand, pressing a button on the console and then typing in the name of a planet. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but it burned itself into his mind like he had known it all his life; Ialara.  
  
Sure enough, the image of a planet popped up. It was small, much smaller than Earth, covered primarily with yellow that was either desert or grasslands, but he could clearly see dark splotches that had to be forests surrounding the shores of the single ocean on the planet's surface. He imagined the warped trees with their peeling bark, and the tiny base he would find lost in the shadows of the forest.  
  
"Found you," Keith rasped, staring at the image of the tiny planet as the shuttle's autopilot adjusted its course. "I'll be there soon, Pidge... just hang on... I'm coming..."


	2. Connection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished this instead of sleeping, but I was just too excited not to. Enjoy the first real chapter of the story; things are only just beginning.
> 
> POV will switch around here and there, so I've incorporated page breaks when that occurs.

\---

_Allura_  
\---

  
It was quiet in the Green Lion's hangar. Normally, Allura would be able to hear small fingers tapping away at a computer's keyboard, or the clanging of someone messing around with any manner of machines and gadgets. Sometimes, she would even be able to find her smallest paladin hanging halfway out of her Lion, upgrading or repairing some system she deemed to be unsatisfactory.   
  
The silence was heartbreaking in itself, without the feeling of Green's sorrow washing over her in great waves.  
  
Allura bit her lip as she slowly approached the left arm of Voltron, the hem of her nightgown swishing softly against the floor. She stopped beside one of the Lion's paws, looking up at Green as she sat there, as motionless and proud as ever. If it weren't for her life force being connected to all of the Lions, she wouldn't even be able to tell anything was different, but as it was, she could just feel this... ache, deep in her chest. Like something had been torn out of her. Was that how all of the Lions felt when their paladins went missing, or died?  
  
Remembering that the Lions had all lost paladins once before, she reached one hand out to smooth her palm against the cool metal of Green's paw. She wasn't sure if physical contact could be a comfort to the Lion, but there was little else she could do. The princess lowered her eyes to the floor, sensing a soft rumble from within the Lion as Green acknowledged her presence.   
  
For a moment, she was silent, but then ran her tongue over her lips and drew in a deep breath before whispering, "I'm sorry..."   
  
Silence once more, thick and stifling.  
  
Allura lifted her free hand to wipe at her eyes as they burned with tears, her breaths shuddering in her chest. "I... I'm supposed to guide them, but all I have succeeded in doing is losing them. First Shiro, though he has returned to us... then Keith, and now... now Pidge... I must be doing something wrong. I'm failing you, and the worst part is, I don't even know how to fix it. I don't know how to be better. I don't know how to be a leader like my father was... like he would want me to be."  
  
She sniffled, shaking her head. Tears began sliding down her face, trailing along her jawline and dripping off her chin. "I don't know what to change..."  
  
"You don't have to change anything."   
  
Another voice made her jump, lifting her head and fixing her tearful blue eyes on the entrance to the hangar. Lance was standing there, leaning against the door frame. His expression was somewhat grim, but his eyes were soft, and after a moment, a tiny smile drifted across his mouth.   
  
He hesitated a moment, but then straightened up and strode across the room to come to her side, his hands reaching out to gently grasp her arms. He smiled at her, and it was in that moment that Allura realized he had gotten taller than her. Had he always been that tall?  
  
"You don't have to change anything," Lance repeated gently. "You've taught us all how to be strong, and helped us to learn how to work as a team... you made us heroes, Allura. But even heroes make mistakes." He glanced away, then looked back into her eyes, seeming sheepish. "Some things, we just have to teach ourselves."  
  
"But Pidge... what could she have learned to prevent this?" Allura asked, shaking her head as the tears kept flowing. "What could we, or anyone else, have taught her?"  
  
Lance was quiet for a moment, but then said softly, "Maybe what she needs to learn is happening wherever she is now, and she'll come back to us stronger than ever. We can't give up on her, Allura... I know she's still out there. Green knows it, too."   
  
They both looked up at the great Lion looming over them, and Lance closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath. "We can feel it."  
  
Allura glanced between the Lion and Lance, then shakily smiled, stepping closer to press her head against the boy's shoulder and wrap her arms around him. Her breaths continued to shudder in her chest as she just barely held back sobs, but some of the tension eased out of her as she melted against Lance's chest, feeling his arms winding around her back. "Thank you..."  
  


\---

_Pidge_

\---

  
She felt invaded, like her very existence was being disturbed. Her skin crawled, muscles twitching and heart racing, the blood rushing through her veins not feeling like her own. Something was there, clawing its way through her, tearing her apart cell by cell and putting her back together in the wrong order.  
  
Pain suddenly seared through her skull, making her grit her teeth as she leaned her head against the wall of the glass tube she was trapped inside of, curling up into a ball and hugging her knees to her chest. She wasn't sure how long she had been trapped there, unable to see the cycles of the sun in this small, windowless room, but it felt like an eternity. Her surroundings consists only of black walls, machines covered in blinking lights and Galran runes, and this glass tube that would occasionally begin leaking a type of gaseous quintessence that burned her lungs with every breath, turning her into this... this _thing.  
  
_ As the headache faded, Pidge cracked open her eyes just a little, staring at the marred reflection of her face in the curved glass of the tube. Pale skin, golden eyes, fluffy hair... all of that was the same. But her ears were long, pointed, making her think of the characters in a Tolkien novel.  
  
She knew, in reality, that she wasn't an elf. She was part Altean, the same alien race that Allura and Coran were, along with Haggar and her Druids. It was clear as day, and made plenty of sense, not to mention how the Druids controlling the machine that fed her quintessence stated that she bore Altean blood. But at the same time... it _didn't_ make sense. For her to be a hybrid, that meant one of her parents had to be Altean, but she had been lovingly raised by two perfectly human parents on Earth. Or, so she thought... Allura did have the ability to transform, and she was still very young and inexperienced for an Altean. What would a mature adult be capable of, if they had to blend in on an unfamiliar planet?  
  
As she sat there and stared at her reflection, unable to even cry because she had run out of tears days ago, she pieced it together in her head, little by little. It was her mother.   
  
For all their years of marriage, and all the stories about meeting when they were only nineteen, they had no photographs of them together as awkward teenagers; no pictures of Colleen in her youth at all, as a matter of fact. Not a single image of Colleen with gangly limbs, wild hair, or braces. She had no family to speak of, always telling Pidge and Matt that her parents had passed away years ago, and she was out of touch with any extended family. The house was full of vintage items that the Holts claimed were family heirlooms, but it probably wouldn't be a stretch to assume they were actually Colleen's belongings. And, while her hairstyle and manner of dress changed over the years, her face never seemed to age. Samuel Holt's hair was turning grey and wrinkles hung below his eyes, but his wife was as lovely and beautiful as she had always been, even after twenty years of living happily with her husband. Pidge knew enough about Alteans to understand that while Coran appeared no older than fifty, he was actually over six hundred years old, when excluding his long sleep in a cryogenic chamber.  
  
The realization came with all the more questions, however. How old was her mother? Was Colleen even her actual name? How did she get to Earth? Did her father know who she really was?  
  
Her bottom lip trembled as her mouth curled in a bitter frown. Her eyes burned, but there still weren't any tears to shed. She was so dried out from dehydration that her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, her lips cracking and bleeding. All she could do was lay there and question who she even was anymore, and ponder how ironic it was that both she and her mother had no choice but to change their faces once. Except, Colleen had likely done it to escape the war, while Pidge had walked straight into it.  
  
And now she was here. Dying. Slowly. Just like her brother died, his grave one among many on that dusty moon.   
  
A rattling breath escaped her, and she let her eyes drift closed again, her thoughts drifting off into a numb silence. The glass of the tube was too thick for her to clearly hear what the Druids outside were saying, but she could pick up bits and pieces.  
  
"... her readings... charts..."  
  
"... blood... resistance to the... tessence..."  
  
"... Alteans... soldiers..."  
  
"... increase... thirty percent..."  
  
Were they going to increase the strength of the gas they gave her again? The mere thought of it made Pidge really wish she had some water in her so she could cry, or maybe that Green was here so she could unleash an angry Lion upon all of these Druids. _That_ would make her feel better... Her chapped lips quirked up in the faintest of smiles, but only for a moment, and then despair weighed down on her once more.  
  
Green was still back on that graveyard moon, for all she knew, unless the bounty hunter who grabbed her had told the Galra where to find her Lion. If he had, they were keeping Green far away from her; she could barely sense her Lion's presence, meaning there was a great distance between them. She just got a flicker, like a candle's tiny flame in a vast, dark room, as opposed the roaring fireplace that was normally Green's presence.   
  
It was so cold without her. Lonely.  
  
Pidge heard the faint hissing overhead that meant the Druids were feeding some quintessence into the storage vessel above the tube, and knew that soon, they would be giving her another dose. She drew in a breath of painless air, relishing the feeling, and tried to steel herself for what was to come. Maybe she would pass out this time and wouldn't have to endure the full treatment awake.  
  
For a minute or two, that faint hissing of air rushing through tiny pipes overhead was all she heard. Her ears twitched as the Druids outside began to speak again, their voices muffled through the glass... their voices rose and fell in volume, almost like they were arguing.   
  
And then came the explosion that shook the floor, rattling her in her tube.  
  
Eyes snapping open, Pidge straightened up and gazed through the glass with wide eyes. At first, she couldn't see anything through the cloud of smoke that filled the room, and after a moment, she realized the smoke was that awful quintessence the Druids had been forcing her to breathe. Glancing up at the ceiling, she could see that the pipes running from the machines to her tube had been destroyed and were leaking the gas everywhere. The Druids were staggering around, clutching at their throats; quintessence could still hurt them?   
  
A figure then appeared right in front of her, making her gasp and flinch away, her back thumping against the opposite wall of her glass prison. She stared up at the figure who was smaller in stature than the Druids, and dressed from head to toe in a dark blue-black armored suit. They wore a mask that made it look like they had three glowing blue-violet eyes, the chest piece of their armor adorned with glowing lines in the same color.   
  
Recognizing the suit, Pidge felt her mouth drop open. _One of the Blade?  
  
_ The Blade slammed one fist against the glass, as though trying to break through it with brute force, but then turned to gaze at the control panel behind the wheezing Druids. They quickly raced towards it, shoving one Druid out of the way and slashing a long, curved dagger at another, cutting them down where they stood. They then seemed to just try every control on the console, pushing buttons, flicking switches, and pressing their palm to the hand print on the screen. A Blade who didn't know the Galran language very well...?  
  
After a few tries, the Blade managed to get the correct control sequence to open the tube. There was a hissing sound as the air-tight seal above her head was broken, and then the tube began sliding downwards, disappearing into the floor and leaving Pidge sitting on the metal platform that had been the bottom of her prison. A harsh, chemical odor washed over her as soon as the seal was broken, and she quickly clapped her hands over her mouth and nose, realizing that the room was _full_ of the gaseous quintessence. Her eyes started to burn from the sheer volume of the stuff, like someone had just sliced a thousand onions in there and left her to suffer.  
  
The Blade rushed over as soon as the tube was lowered enough for them to reach over its glass walls and grab Pidge under her arms, yanking her off of the platform. She was firmly hugged against a lean but muscular chest, the Blade's arms wrapping around her and squeezing her tightly for a moment. And were they... shaking slightly?  
  
One of the surviving Druids then rose up behind Pidge's rescuer, uttering a garbled cry and lashing out with one clawed, bony hand.   
  
The Blade turned just in time to be smacked in the side of the head by the Druid, their mask being knocked right off their face and skittering across the floor as they stumbled, tightening their grip on Pidge. The girl squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to continue holding her breath, and winced as she heard her rescuer give a pained wheeze. _Hold your breath, damn it!_  
  
A dizzying feeling came over her as she was yanked backwards, the Blade leaping away from the Druid before flipping Pidge up over their shoulder like a sack of flour. She grunted as a narrow shoulder dug into her stomach, her lungs screaming for air by now, and was relieved when she felt air rushing against her face; the Blade was now running, getting them out of that cursed room and rushing out into the hallway beyond. She still waited a few seconds before breathing, just to be safe, counting to five before dropping her hands and drawing in a gasping breath, her lungs filling with sweet, mostly-clean air. It felt so good.  
  
Drawing in ragged breaths, Pidge blinked to clear her blurring vision. She could see her rescuer's legs beneath her as whoever they were ran down the hallway, and when she turned her head to look over her shoulder, she could see a head of black hair. Human hair.  
  
"Keith?!" Pidge rasped, recognizing that mullet anywhere.   
  
Keith glanced back at her over his shoulder, his eyes wide with fear, but he gave her a crooked little smile nonetheless. Between panting breaths, he told her, "I've... I've got you, Pidge..."  
  
How much of that stuff had he inhaled in just one breath? Pidge could see the pain written all over his face, but somehow he kept going, just tightening his grip on her legs to keep her on his shoulder as he booked it through the hallways.   
  
"How...?" Pidge wheezed, her question breaking off into a few rattling coughs. Her chest ached, and she was pretty sure she felt another headache coming on.   
  
"I'm part Galra, remember?" Keith responded breathlessly, his eyes now fixed forward as he raced for the lab's exit. "I walked right in through the front door... they really weren't expecting that."  
  
That answered one question, but she had so many more. How did he even find her in the first place? Were the other Blades here, or Voltron?  
  
Now wasn't the time to interrogate him, though, because they were suddenly out of the shadowy lab and into the forest beyond. Curls of shed tree bark crunched under Keith's feet with every step as he continued to run, weaving through the weird, bent-looking trees Pidge had first seen when the Galra brought her to this little planet.   
  
Keith was really fighting for breath by the time they reached his shuttle, which seemed to be the only ship there. He had come alone. The former paladin carried her inside through the open, waiting doors of the shuttle, turning to unceremoniously plop her down onto one of the bunks, and then pushed his way forward into the cockpit to get the shuttle off the ground. Pidge could see him drop heavily into the pilot seat, breaking into a coughing fit as he powered up the engines and flicked the switch to close the doors.  
  
"Keith..." Pidge forced herself to sit up, propped up on her elbows. Her hands were shaking, fingers curled into fists she couldn't seem to release. "You breathed in a lot of that gas..."  
  
"I'm fine," he coughed, shaking his head. "We need to get out of here."  
  
They both stiffened as they heard a series of thumping noises against the outside of the shuttle, and knew that some of the Galran drones had caught up to them. Their blasters were firing upon the ship, not doing too much damage on their own, but if they took out one of the engines or some other vital piece of the spacecraft, they were screwed.  
  
Pidge tried to convince her tired, shaking body to get off of the bunk Keith had dumped her on so she could help somehow, but her limbs didn't seem to be listening to her. The tremors in her fingers spread up her arms, her knees starting to shake, even the muscles in her stomach and neck twitching. The spasms left her laying flat on her back, her breaths hitching every time a muscle in her chest clenched, almost like she had hiccups. She couldn't even lift her head, unable to find the strength in her neck to do so, just staring up at the top of the bunk. At least that awful sensation of having something crawling around under her skin was gone, but there was nothing she could do about the tremors that wracked her entire body. She just had to wait them out, and hope Keith could get them out of there so neither one of them had to go back into that cursed test tube.  
  
The shuttle's engine hummed to life, the walls rattling, and Pidge closed her eyes as she felt the ship begin to take off. It moved forward and up, slowly at first, but then faster, the gentle curve of its flight path carrying them higher and higher into the atmosphere.  
  
The thumping of the blasters shooting at them faded as they rose out of range, but she could hear a whining from one of the ship's boosters. It had been damaged. They weren't going to get too far without having to land.  
  
"Pidge...? Pidge?!"  
  
She gave a little jolt as she realized Keith was calling her name, opening her eyes again. Her voice shook as badly as her body, the tremors still making her twitch and shiver uncontrollably, "Y-yeah...?"  
  
"Just... just hang on." He didn't try asking if she was alright, perhaps table to tell that she wasn't. "Just hang on. We're almost safe, I promise. It's gonna be okay."  
  
He actually sounded like he believed that, and a wave of calm washed over Pidge. It was going to be okay. He came for her.   
  
A smile suddenly came to Pidge's face, and a dry laugh escaped her throat even as she lay there in the throes of her muscle spasms. Her body somehow found the water to spare just a single tear that worked its way from the corner of her eye, rolling down the side of her face.   
  
"Pidge?"  
  
"I just... I really missed you... wh-while you were away... and now you're here, and..."  
  
"Yeah... I... I missed you, too. I missed all of you guys."  
  
Pidge sniffled a bit, but she felt so _good_ in that moment. She was free of that lab. Keith was here. And even though she was going to have to deal with the life-changing realization that she was an alien hybrid, and suffering from potentially long-term side effects of the experimentation she endured, and her hunt for her brother had been pointless in the end, she was _alive._ And if she was alive, that meant she could keep going.  
  
She would keep going. For Matt. And her parents. And the other paladins. Everyone. She would keep going.  
  
And that was when the next headache finally hit, both Pidge and Keith letting out a pained cry as a some unknown force drove a blade through their skulls in the exact same moment. Lights, colors, and images flitted through their minds, accompanied by the harsh taste of chemicals and the floral scent of the woodland. They stared at their own faces through one another's eyes, felt the pain of one another's wounds, and then they blacked out.  
  
Pidge's eyes rolled back in her head as her eyelids fluttered closed, the last thing she heard being the sound of Keith collapsing onto the floor in the cockpit. And then she was gone, drifting into an empty, dreamless sleep.


	3. Author's Note (3/3/18)

Hey, everyone! Sorry it's been so long since this updated, but real life decided to kick me in the booty and kept me away for a while. Season 5 of the show just came out though, and I binged the whole thing and was inspired all over again to try to work on this!

Just remember that this story is divergent from canon, starting in Season 4, so not all of the details will match up with Season 5 or any later seasons, once we get them!


	4. Crash Landing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this chapter taking a while, and for the story being a bit slow! Working on getting back into it after an accidental hiatus! I hope you enjoy. ovo

 

_\---_  
_Keith_  
_\---_

  
  
It was the sound of alarms whooping that eventually roused Keith, the harsh noise cutting into his ears and insisting that something was _wrong,_ and he needed to get up _right now._ The boy cracked open his eyes, finding himself laying on the floor of the shuttle's cockpit, sprawled awkwardly on his side with one arm pinned beneath him and the other stretched out over his head, his hair hanging in a tangled, sweaty mess over his face. His skin was clammy, and nausea clenched at his gut as he forced himself to sit up on one elbow, panting for breath. He felt like absolute hell.  
  
Swallowing back the bile rising in his throat, he reached up to grab the pilot seat and used it as leverage to drag himself to his feet. His stomach lurched, and he felt the sweat beading against his forehead, but he managed to stay standing, at least until he could shuffle his legs to the side and flop into the chair. He let out a shaky breath, raising one hand to his head and finding that it was warm with a slight fever. Was this the work of that gas he had breathed in back at the lab?  
  
Suddenly realizing how quiet it was in the shuttle, aside from the alarms trying to get his attention, Keith twisted around to look back through the narrow pathway cutting through the center of the ship. "Pidge?"  
  
He could vaguely make out her small shape from where he sat; she wasn't shaking anymore, not that he could see, but she also wasn't responding to his voice. She was just laying there on her back in the same position he had left her in when he dropped her onto the bunk, her arms resting limply at her sides and legs stretched out.  
  
Keith muttered a soft curse, then faced the console again, squinting at the warnings popping up all over the holographic screens. They detailed the various external damage the ship had taken, along with a slight fuel leak, and the fact that with one booster completely shot, they weren't able to fight the gravitational pull of a nearby planet. He leaned forward a little to peer through the windows of the cockpit, and sure enough, he saw a large planet to his left. Its surface was a bright, shimmery blue, with little patches of land dotted over it, mere islands rather than proper continents. There was liquid water, which was promising; chances were that the planet was hospitable, though that posed some dangers in itself. Aggressive natives or animals were the last thing he needed to deal with right now.  
  
"Alright, I guess we're going in for an emergency landing... not like we can fight this gravity, anyway." He wiped the sweat off his face again, then set the autopilot to guide the ship towards one of the larger islands on the planet's surface. His hands were too shaky; he didn't trust himself to land safely.  
  
It was likely going to be a bumpy ride, so Keith braced his hands on the arms of his chair to push himself to his feet, then slowly shuffled towards Pidge. Resting one hand against the bunk, he leaned over her and reached out to slide open a long, narrow hatch on the wall, exposing a set of belts that could act like safety restraints. They existed exactly for situations like this one, when an injured person needed strapped down to keep them from flopping around the shuttle. He grabbed one and stretched it out across the bed, letting it lay over Pidge's stomach and clipping it to the latch on the side of the cot. He did so for the belts that went over her chest and legs as well, then tightened them, securing her to the bunk. Giving her a concussion or some other injury would not help her current pitiful state... she already looked thin and bruised, like she was thrown into a boxing ring and hadn't eaten in a week.  
  
Gently giving the prone girl's head a pat, Keith muttered mostly to himself, "Alright, kid, here we go..." He then turned to hobble his way back to the pilot's chair so he could strap himself in and brace for a rough landing.  
  
Things were fine for the first few minutes, but the shuttle began to shudder as it entered the planet's atmosphere, and then came the deep rumbling noise, like a waterfall was crashing over them. After a few more moments, they broke through the ozone layer, and then the ship _really_ began to shake, the walls rattling so loudly he almost couldn't hear the dull roar of the turbulence outside. He could feel his teeth clacking together and clenched his jaw, his hands tightening into fists around the straps of his safety harness. Light flickered at the edges of the cockpit's window, the outside of the ship heating up as they pierced the air like a bullet.  
  
The island he had set as their destination was coming into view now, at first just a blob of color down below, but he could gradually make out the sandy beaches dotted with rocks and tussocks of long grass, along with meadows and woodland mingling together further inland. A flock of birds took off in a panic at the sight of the foreign object hurtling from the sky, huge beasts with black feathers and two sets of wings.  
  
Keith only had a moment to stare into the beady yellow eyes of one of the massive birds before the ship made contact with the ground. The impact made him jerk forward against the safety harness of his seat, knocking the air from his lungs. The shuttle slid across the beach, leaving a plume of sand in its wake, and continued going until it eventually came to a halt in one of the meadows lining the shore, a trail of churned earth and torn grass marking its path. Smoke rose from the ship's wounds as its walls uttered a soft groan, followed by some ticking noises as the super-heated metal cooled and an engine spluttered before going quiet. The screens still illuminated before him now informed him of a lot more damage done to the shuttle; it was officially unfit for takeoff.  
  
He could worry about that later, though. For the moment, Keith just worried about unbuckling himself and shakily getting to his feet so he could stagger back through the shuttle. Back at the bunks, he found Pidge still safely strapped down, and still very unconscious.  
  
Unlatching the safety belts so she wouldn't wake to find herself tied down, Keith let out an unsteady breath, beads of sweat rolling down his face. Maybe it would be best that he laid down, too... he could let the shuttle run some scans of the planet to see what kind of dangers and resources were around, and rest just a little... just until his head stopped throbbing, and his vision wasn't swimming... was it just him, or was the ship still moving? Because it felt like it was still moving.  
  
Once again making a futile effort to wipe the sweat from his forehead, he turned on one heel to face the cot directly across the walkway from Pidge's, so he could drop down onto it and curl up on his side. He felt so sick... he was reminded of that time he got the flu back on earth, in his freshman year of high school.  
  
Despite all of the uncertainty about what would happen next, he was able to close his eyes and drift off for a much-needed nap. After all, there was nothing he could do but wait for the ship to tell him if the planet was safe, and for whatever that stuff he had inhaled back on Ialara to pass through his system. Spending that time regaining some energy was a lot more useful than just panicking.  
  
Silence descended upon the shuttle as it sat in the meadow, a few gigantic black birds gathering around to stare at it in confusion, but none daring to approach. The two young hybrids inside were safe, for the moment.  
  


 

_\---_   
_Pidge_   
_\---_

  
  
Her head didn't hurt so bad anymore when she finally came to, now just aching instead of feeling like she was being stabbed with a dull knife. Slowly, Pidge cracked open her eyes, and at first was surprised when she wasn't met with the sight of the glass tube, but rather the sleek, paneled wall of a shuttle. It all came rushing back a moment later; pipes exploding, a Blade rushing in, and that Blade turning out to be Keith, who took her to a shuttle he had left in the woods. She wasn't sure what happened after that.  
  
Rolling over, she found that Keith was laying in the cot right across the aisle from hers, looking sick as a dog. His skin was pale, sweat matting his dark hair, and she could see bruises... no, those weren't bruises. They were _moving.  
  
_ Pidge just stared for a moment, watching as patches of purple flitted across Keith's skin, slowly appearing and then fading again, like he was a chameleon whose skin was stuck on a "strobe" setting. His ears were warping, too, one of them longer and pointier than the other, bits of dark violet fur speckling it, and the tip of a single white fang poked out from his lips. The smoke... the quintessence. It was affecting him just like it did her, bringing out what made him a hybrid. Except, for him, it wasn't Altean blood. It was Galran.  
  
Swallowing back the lump that suddenly formed in her throat, Pidge braced one hand against the mattress to push herself upright, her other arm wrapping around her stomach as it clenched. Her limbs weren't shaking anymore, at least, so she was steady enough to drape her legs over the side of the cot and get to her feet. She still took it slow, feeling just a little dizzy and lightheaded as she shuffled out to the cockpit, looking for any information at all about where they were and what had happened while she was unconscious.  
  
The fact that they had crashed on an uncivilized planet was the first thing that became clear. The shuttle was reporting extensive damage, but did have some good news in that the planet they had landed on had a safe atmosphere to breathe, for the most part, and there was plenty of water around. It was detecting a few life forms, too, but not in high enough concentrations to imply there was any civilization; just wild animals. Hopefully, none of them big and carnivorous.  
  
Leaning against the cockpit with one arm braced against the control panel, Pidge used her other hand to flick through the ship's damage report, and started another self-diagnostic scan to see if it was at all something she could repair. She doubted the planet would have any supplies that would be useful, unless there was another crash site nearby, but if she could do a hack job just to get the ship airborne again, she could try.  
  
For the moment, though... they were most definitely stranded.  
  
With a sigh, she glanced back towards Keith, whose hands and feet were starting to twitch. The muscle spasms were starting for him, too.  
  
Pidge frowned, but doubted there was anything she could do about it except for feel some sympathy, since she knew what he was going through right now. Except... maybe there were some medical supplies on the ship? She doubted Keith was dumb enough to leave on a dangerous solo mission without proper supplies. Then again, he was dumb enough to leave on the dangerous solo mission in the first place, and she doubted he had permission from anyone. Otherwise, he would have backup, or at least a better ship...  
  
Willing her weak knees to hold her upright a bit longer, she turned to shuffle her way towards the back of the ship, where the cargo was kept. She started to look through the metal crates, finding food goo, clothes, a handheld scanner that could get the specs on any wildlife or materials they came across -- she took that, since it would be useful if they went to explore the planet -- packets of water, water purification tablets, and...  
  
"Aha!" She gave a tired but victorious smile as she found a crate of medical supplies, and started to dig through it. Bandages, sutures, a few canisters of medical foam meant to stop heavy bleeding, and then some vials of medicine and an injection gun to administer them right through the skin.  
  
She squinted at the packages of medicine vials, reading what each one was for, and found one that would help to lower a fever, and another that was basically a muscle relaxer, to help with the spasms. For a moment, she hesitated, wondering if the medicine was even safe for them, but then remembered that she was part Altean, and Keith was part Galra... and it wasn't like the medicine could be any worse than the toxic levels of quintessence they were exposed to. She would just have to trust it.  
  
She gathered up the items and staggered back out to the bunks, taking a seat on hers and setting everything out on the mattress. She put the scanner aside for now, taking one of the medicine vials and sliding it into the injection gun. There was no worry about changing needles on it, since it didn't have a needle, instead injecting medicine into the skin without ever needing to pierce it.  
  
She would have loved to have alien medical technology when she was a little kid stressing over her booster shots.  
  
With one of the fever reducer vials in the injection gun, Pidge rolled up her shirt sleeve and turned the end of the gun to her forearm, then squeezed the trigger. There was a soft noise, like high-pressure air being released, and she felt a cold, stinging feeling on her arm. The tiny vial of medicine drained almost instantly, and then a light on the side of the gun flashed, and she drew it away from her arm. There was a little patch of irritation on her skin from where the medicine had entered, but it didn't really hurt, so she didn't hesitate to slip one of the muscle relaxer vials into the gun and repeat the process in a spot further up her arm, both medications now administered.  
  
Then it was Keith's turn. Pidge loaded up the other vial of fever reducer, then got up from her cot and moved to bend over Keith as he lay on his. He was still wearing his full-body armor, with only his head not covered... she'd just have to inject it into his neck. She pulled down the thick, almost rubber-like material around his neck, baring the side of it so she could press the nozzle of the injection gun to his skin and pull the trigger.  
  
Keith jolted awake, either from the stinging of the gun or the noise it made, his glassy eyes wide with alarm. He looked up at Pidge, startled, and she gave him a reassuring little smile.  
  
"It's okay," she reassured him, loading the gun with his dose of muscle relaxer. "It's medicine, for fever and muscles spasms. I gave myself some, too. Hold still a moment."  
  
He obeyed, laying still so she could press the nozzle to a spot lower on his neck and inject the other medicine. He shuddered a bit at the tingling, lifting his hand to rub at the side of his neck as he pushed himself upright with the other arm. "Thanks... I'm glad to see you're up. How are you feeling?"  
  
Pidge shrugged a little, shuffling back to sit down heavily on her own cot, her muscles already exhausted after being on her feet for less than ten minutes. "Tired... sore..."  
  
Keith moved to get up, taking it slow as if he still wasn't feeling so great, but started to make his way towards the crates of cargo she had just been digging through. "Don't try to go to sleep yet. I want to make sure you eat and drink something first. When was the last time you had anything?"  
  
Blinking, Pidge moved one hand to her stomach, which felt flat and hollow. "I... don't really know. A while."  
  
"Then only have a little, and have it slowly. Don't want you to get sick," Keith suggested, coming back with some packets of water and food goo.  
  
"Right..." Pidge took what was handed to her, stabbing the straw into her water packet and taking a small sip.  
  
There was a brief moment of silence after that as the two sipped at their water, but it felt like it stretched on. The weight of their situation was beginning to settle; not only were they stranded and sick on an unknown planet, but Pidge could feel Keith's eyes on her, taking in the changes she had undergone while in the Druids' lab. Her weight loss wasn't the only thing different now.  
  
After another long moment, Keith finally spoke, his voice soft, "So... you're like me? A, uh... hybrid, I mean."  
  
Pidge nodded, her large, triangular ears tilting downward slightly. "Yeah, I... I guess I am. After I was captured, I was brought to the Druid witch, and she was able to sense it, even though I've lived my whole life thinking I was just a normal human. Well, I mean, normal is subjective, but... you know what I mean."  
  
"Yeah, I get it," Keith agreed, looking down at the water in his hands. "It's weird, isn't it? That we're both half-alien, and both became paladins. I guess neither of us could really escape where we came from."  
  
Pidge wasn't sure if she believed in things like fate and destiny, but if there was a point to be made about such things, Keith had a pretty good one right there. She opened her package of food goo, tearing the corner off of it and swiping some of the blue-colored sludge with her finger, popping it in her mouth. It tasted a bit different than the green, Altean food back on the castle, but it wasn't bad. If she compared it to an earth food, it would be... carrot pudding? Kind of?  
  
"You okay?" Keith's voice came to her again, and she realized she had gone silent, and had apparently been hungry enough to eat about half of her packet of food goo without even noticing. It really had been a long time since she had eaten, hadn't it?  
  
Clearing her throat a little, she swallowed her mouthful and shrugged. "I... I don't know. It just feels like everything I knew before is wrong now, and... I don't like that feeling. The feeling of not _knowing._ And I also don't know what lasting effects that quintessence will have, or... or how I'm supposed to tell everyone my brother is dead..."  
  
Keith sighed, and when she glanced up at his face, she saw his dark eyes were filled with sympathy, and even sadness. "They know. We all found your Lion, back on that moon, and Shiro found the grave. I'm so sorry, Pidge..."  
  
Pidge felt her hands tighten around her half-empty packet of food, and tears began to sting her eyes, threatening to use up what little water she had just gotten back into her system. She did _not_ want to cry in front of Keith, though, lifting one hand to rub at her eyes in an attempt to hide it. "It's... it's fine. It's not your fault. Matt would have wanted me to keep going, and to find our Dad, so... that's what I'm going to do."  
  
There was another moment of silence, and then Pidge felt a hand on her arm. Startled, she gave a little jump, then looked up to see Keith leaning across the small aisle between them so he could grasp her arm in a reassuring manner, a small smile on his face. "That's right. We just got you out of that hellhole, we aren't going to give up now. Let's finish our food and get some rest, so we can figure out what to do from here."  
  
Pidge managed a small smile in return, even though her eyes were still burning. "Yeah... right. Thanks."  
  
The silence after that was more comfortable, less tense, and filled with the soft sounds of water being slurped through straws and the crinkling of the food goo packages. They then discarded their trash and curled up on their bunks to get some more rest, able to drift off into a deep, proper sleep thanks to their muscle spasms and fevers easing. They would worry about how to reunite with the rest of the Voltron team when they woke.


End file.
